Last week, I wrote about "culture-jacking" over at Authority Labs, and how Oreo, a large, corporate-sized brand, is killing it with their social media messaging despite their larger company size (which often creates problems when it comes to successful and timely marketing efforts). Responding to a newsworthy pop culture event in a quick and clever fashion isn't easy, especially for a company with large departments and presumably various hoops to jump through (Marketing, Design, Legal, among others). Oreo, however, is proving that it can absolutely be done on a large-scale level, meaning smaller brands should be able to make it happen too.

Their "You can still dunk in the dark" tweet and ad amidst the Super Bowl third quarter blackout was creative, lightning-quick, and had mass appeal. This week, Oreo did it again, only this time they went slightly more niche. On Sunday the 85th Annual Academy Awards aired opposite AMC's hit series The Walking Dead. While the Oscars enjoyed higher ratings than last year's show (Sunday's telecast attracted an average of 40.3 million viewers), The Walking Dead, the most-watched cable drama on television right now, is a formidable opponent. So who's audacious enough to reference both the glitz and glam of the Oscars and the zombified, violent world depicted in The Walking Dead in one quick-hitting ad? Oreo, of course.

On Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, season 3 villain The Governor, who recently lost an eye during a skirmish, debuted a new eye patch:

In a subreddit dedicated to The Walking Dead, one user mentioned something along the lines of how The Governor's new eye patch has the same look and texture as an Oreo cookie. I'm not sure if Oreo's marketing team monitors the subreddit or if similar comments were made elsewhere, but shortly after the episode aired, Oreo whipped up this gem:

Brilliant. I have to give a round of applause to Oreo here -- they successfully and cleverly referenced the evening's two biggest events, the Oscars and The Walking Dead, in one succinct, catchy ad. It's definitely more subtle than their Super Bowl blackout response; after all, despite The Walking Dead's success, it's still a hell of a lot less popular than professional football. But I think there's genius in Oreo's subtlety -- it feels like an "inside joke" to Walking Dead fans, and getting the joke makes viewers feel as if they're in an exclusive club. Plus, passionate fans of the show are likely to share the ad with their friends and followers to highlight how cool Oreo is (I know I did).

So what's the takeaway from all this? In my opinion, don't be afraid to try something that's a bit more niche. If you can identify a more dedicated yet passionate group to market to, you may resonate more strongly than if you were to create something broad to try and appeal to a larger demographic. Oreo's multifaceted approach is creating a positive branding experience on both a large scale and a smaller, more specific level. When handling your reputation and your branding, you need to do the same -- be diverse in your approach and your strategies so you can achieve success from multiple angles.

The dentist who is believed to have shot and killed a beloved lion has faced serious backlash online. His reputation may never recover. But even if you're not hunting protected lions, you should be careful about your personal life interfering with your professional reputation.

We've all made mistakes at work, but there are a few things that you should really be careful to avoid, both for your reputation and your career. U.S. News took on this subject and asked experts about actions that can sabotage careers and happiness at work.

You only get one chance to make a first impression and often, that first interaction is going to be online. Are you ready to knock their socks off in a matter of seconds? Because that's what you'll need to do to make a good impression online today.

It's been a busy week at ReputationManagement.com, and our CEO, Bill Fish, has been quoted in a number of articles. He discussed issues in the hiring process, blog goals, and even tools that we use here at ReputationManagement.com.

Summer is a great time to kick back and relax, take a vacation, or work on projects that you haven't been able to get to all year. But for college students, summer is also a great time to focus on building a great reputation, and a big part of that is developing a positive social media experience that supports college recruitment and job searching.We asked Alan Katzman, founder of Social Assurity, to explain how students can effectively use social media for college search, hiring, and professional development.

We're in the age of Big Data: small bits of information collected on a large scale, analyzed, and often, acted upon. Big Data can be something as small as buying a pack of gum or noting an excited hotel check in on Facebook, but it has big implications for businesses as well as individuals.

When a company has a bad reputation, whether it's earned by a corporate scandal, poor customer service, or unhappy employees, business is simply more difficult to conduct, increasing the cost of doing business. Often, it's more difficult to retain customers and employees, shareholders, and other important stakeholders, making the costs of doing business significantly higher. Having a bad reputation can make business operations more difficult every step of the way.

As founder and CEO of Grade.us, it's Jon Hall's job to read reviews, help businesses source, track, and monitor them, and ultimately, use them to improve their online reputation and internal processes. So we asked him to tell us about the most common compliments and complaints he's seen in reviews, how to earn more positive reviews, and breaking down roadblocks to getting customers to leave a positive review.